Coming Soon

Platform

South LA is resilient. South LA is visionary. South LA is home.

South LA is the future.

On the 25th anniversary of the 1992 LA Uprising, we identify four root causes – law enforcement suppression, housing insecurity, economic divestment, and environmental racism – which we believe negatively affect community health and were among the root causes of the social rebellion.

Join us, as we highlight our vision of transformation and health which preserves the integrity of the poor and working class people in our neighborhoods and points toward a future for the entire city. This vision builds on South LA’s unique models of cross-racial unity and of community-driven policy solutions.

We envision living in neighborhoods that are safe, and people are free from state violence. Public safety emerges from positive neighborhood conditions and the dismantling of the culture of police abuse against South LA residents. We want an alternative to the economy of violence and to walk in freedom without being racially profiled or criminalized for being poor people of color or gender non-conforming. The policy solutions in this section combat the many ways that South LA residents face immediate and ongoing threats to their life, freedom, and well-being, due to racism in law enforcement, court systems, and repressive public policies that were the root causes of the 1992 LA Uprising and which persist today.

Solutions:

Reduce Policing and Jails and Make Police Departments Accountable to the Public.

End the Criminalization of Poverty and Racial Discrimination in the Justice System.

Use Public Tax Money to Support Community-Based Crime Prevention.

End the School to Prison Pipeline and Stop the Militarization of Schools.

Protect Immigrants and All Residents from Harm, Criminalization, and Deportation.

Driver of Disparity #2
Gentrification, Displacement, and Homelessness

South LA is and will continue be a home for working class people of color, a center for Black culture, a haven for documented and undocumented immigrants, and innovation into finding permanent housing for the homeless. A place where people matter more than dollars. The policy solutions below represent areas of work that attempt to address the crisis forcing poor people and people of color out of their homes and into the streets or entire communities out of South LA due to failed public policies and structural racism. By supporting these community-driven solutions to displacement and homelessness, South LA can be a beacon to show that poor and working class people of color have a future in LA.

Solutions:

Prevent Displacement of Residents and Ensure Housing Security

End Housing Discrimination

Honor Community Control over Neighborhood Development

Increase the Affordable Housing Stock

Ensure South Los Angeles Neighborhoods Receive their Fair Equitable Share of Basic County and City Services

Driver of Disparity #3
Disinvestment, Joblessness, and Poverty

We believe in building a South LA where all residents have access to housing, jobs, careers, business opportunities, safe neighborhoods, and low-cost transportation. The policy solutions below represent areas of work that attempt to increase financial security and build a human safety net that would allow South LA residents to have a basic level of health, well-being, and an opportunity to not just survive but thrive. They reflect policies and the infrastructure needed to ensure individual and community wellness that ties to financial security. They seek to erase all disparities in health outcomes which arise from structural racism and the dehumanization of the poor as reflected in current public policies that deny people a chance to make a living and neighborhoods to develop thriving economies.

Solutions:

Promote People-Centered Economic Development and Anti-Displacement Strategies to Maintain Them

End Job Discrimination and Barriers to Careers due to Criminal Record Histories

Ensure Poor and Working Class People Can Afford to Get To and From Work and to Use Streets Safely

Driver of Disparity #4
Environmental Racism

We believe that children have the right to clean air, land, and water, and safe streets where they can play, grow and thrive. We believe that families have the right to raise their children in homes free from environmental health hazards and in neighborhoods free of toxins and pollution. We believe families have the right to parks and green space and to local, healthy food. We are determined to end environmental racism – the disproportionate impact of environmental burdens and glaring, lack of environmental benefits on people of color – a root cause of health disparities and social unrest in South LA. Furthermore, communities that are poor and communities of color have a fundamental right to participate in all decision-making structures that shape the physical environment in which they live. The policy solutions below outline how we can achieve this goal and end environmental racism.

Solutions:

Ensure Poor and Working Class Communities are protected by California’s air quality and climate policies

Require Public Agency Action to Protect Residents from Disproportionate Exposure to Pollution

End the Disparities in Access to Parks, Green Space, and Community Gardens